Sign-exhibiting means



L. E. WILCOX. SIGN EXHIBITING MEANS.

APPLICATION FILED .IUNE3, 1919- 1,354,638. Patented Oct. 5, 1920,

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

llllllll u lyle 22 WZZC'OX W ":(Jtforwm L. E. WILCOX.

SIGN EXHIBITING MEANS.

APPLICATION man JUNE 2. 1919.

1,354,638, Patented Oct. 5, 192%.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

PATENT OFFICE.

LYLE E. WILGOX, OF MGLEAN, ILLINOIS.

SIGN-EXHIBITING MEANS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed. June 3, 1919. Serial No. 301,395.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LYLE E. WILooX, a citizen of the United States, residin at McLean, in the county of McLean and btate of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sign-Exhibiting Means, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to station indicators for passenger cars and more particularly to an improved mechanism especially adapted to be mounted upon railway cars for indicating the stations of street stops so that the passengers within the car may observe the names of the stations which will appear in proper order as the car advances from one station or street to another.

One ofthe objects of the invention is to provide an improved mechanism of this character which will automatically operate through the medium of suitable tripping devices arranged in the vicinity of the station, and which will be actuated by the rotary movement of the axle on one of the trucks of the car.

The invention further aims to provide an apparatus of this character which may be readily adapted for mounting on any type of railroad car or street passenger car without altering any of the parts thereof.

A further object of the invention is to provide an indicator of this character which may be operated to properly indicate the stations regardless of the direction of movement of the car thereby assuring proper display of the names of the stations as the car travels from one end of the route to the other and back again.

A further. object of the invention is to provide a device of this character which con sists of comparatively few parts and is simple in construction, but durable and well adapted to withstand the rough usage to which devices of this character are ordinarily subjected.

For a full description of the invention and the advantages and merits thereof, reference is to be had to the following description and accompanying drawings, 1n which:-

Figure 1 is a vertical fragmentary section through a car showing my invention applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a section taken substantially on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a detailed View of the slotted end of one of the shaft hangers.

Most of the mechanism is arranged beneath the floor of the car A and is adapted to be actuated by the axle B on one of the trucks of the car. This axle is provided with a friction disk 1 having a beveled edge adapted to be engaged by a second friction disk 2, the beveled edge of which is adapted to engage the beveled edge of the disk hat a proper interval. The disk 2 is secured to a shaft 3 at one end thereof, the shaft being equipped at its opposite end with a gear 1 in mesh with a gear 5 on a parallel shaft 6. The end of the shaft 6 is provided with a beveled gear 7 in mesh with the beveled gear 8 on the lower end of the vertical shaft 9 which extends upwardly through the car body and is adapted to drive the sign displaying mechanism in a manner that will hereinafter appear.

Attached to the car floor is a sleeve 10 within which one end of a trip 11 is slidably received, the interior of the sleeve 10 being provided with a coil expansion spring to normally urge the trip rod 11 downwardly. The lower end of the trip rod 11 is provided with a shoulder 12 which will rest against the abutment member 13 when the trip rod is in normal position and forced outwardly by the spring. The lower terminal of the trip rod carries a wheel 14 which is adapted to engage and ride upon a trip rail 15 arranged at the side of and parallel with the railway rail. One of these trip rails 15 is provided adjacent each station or street crossing at which the car ordinarily stops so that the mechanism will be actuated whenever the wheel 14: engages one of the trip rails 15. It will be noted that the top of the trip rail is slightly above the top of the railway so that the trip rod 11 will be raised the required distance when it engages the trip rail.

One end of a clutch shaft lever 16 is Patented Oct. 5, 1920.

joined to the trip rod as indicated at 17 and this lever 16 is pivotally supported on the pin 18 which is carried by a supporting member 19. The opposite end of the lever 16 forms a right a-ngularly extending arm 20 the terminal of which receives the shaft 3 upon which the friction clutch disk 2 is mounted. Fig. 4 shows the manner in which with a slot 22 in which the shaft 3 is received for the purpose of permitting the shaft 3 to move whereby the friction disk 2 may be engaged or disengaged with the friction disk 1. In this connection it should be pointed out thaton-ly a fraction of an inch movement is required to disengage the friction disks land 2 and since the shaft is relatively long the engagement and disengagement of the disks 1 and 2 maybe accomplished without difficulty and still maintain the gears 4 and 5 in mesh.

A counter shaft 23 is suspended from hangers 23 and is arranged parallel with the'shaft 3 but slightly below the same as shown to advantage in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawing. The end'of this shaft 23 carries a gear- 24 in mesh with an idler-.24 which meshes with gear 4 so that the two shafts 3 and. 23 turn in the same direction. A cam 25 is mounted upon the shaft 23 and .a similar cam 25 is mounted upon the shaft 3 and as shown clearlyin Fig. 3 these cams project in opposite directions. Extending vertically and projecting between the cams is a movable bar 26, the upper end of which is provided with a hingedly mounted abut ment member27 adapted to be engaged by the cam 25. A second abutment member 28 is mounted below the member 27 and is adapted to be engaged by thecam 25 the two members being hingedly mounted so that they will rise when either of the cams strike them from the bottom but will cause the bar 26 to be forced downwardly when either of the cams strike them from the top. This .bar is movable through a bracket member 29 projecting from a support 30 and the lower endv of the latter has pivotally connected thereto a bell crank lever 31 one end of which is adapted to engage the lower end of the movable bar 26 while the other end is joined to a locking rod 32. The bracket member 29 is provided with a bearing 33 which supports the rod '32 and which acts as an abutment for a coil expansion spring the trip rod is raised .by virtue of'its engagement with the trip rail 15. A brake is provided for preventing the parts from moving after each actuation o fthe mecha-' nism and this brake comprises the arm 37,

connected as shown to the trip rod 11 and having its opposite end pivotally mounted as indicated at 38 on a-support 39, the arm' 37 carries, a brake shoe 4O normally above the shaft 6 so that the brake shoe will move into engagement with the shaft 6 when the arm swings downwardly by virtue of the movement of the trip rod 11 when rod 32 disengages the notch 36. Conveniently located within the car A is a casing 41 within which is arranged the parallel shafts 42 and '43 having rollers 44 around which is wound the flexible carrier having the names of the stations or streets printed thereon. The shaft 43 has one end provided with a beveled gear 45 adapted to be engaged by either of the beveled gears 46 and 47 on the upper end of the shaft 9. These gears are mounted upon a sleeve 48 which is slidably mounted upon the shaft 9 but is provided with a suitable key or the like whereby rotary movement is imparted to the gears when theshaft is turned, while at the same-time the sleeve is free to be adjusted longitudinally for moving the gears 46 and 47 into and out of engagement with the gear 45. This movement is accomplished by a pivoted lever 49 having one end engaged with the sleeve 48 and its opposite end connected to a cable 50 which may be actuated by the conductor, within the car.

Assuming that the rod 32 is disengaged from'the notch 36 and that the trip rod 11 is in its lowermost position, and the car is approaching a station. lVl1en the wheel 14 strikes the trip rail 15 it will be raised to the position shown and the upward movement of the trip rod 11 will cause the lever 16 to be actuated for moving the shaft 3 to cause the friction disks 1 and 2 to engage for actuating the shaft 3' and thereby actuating the shafts 6 and 23 through the intermeshing gears'4, 5, 24 and 24. This movement of the shaft 6 imparts movement, to the shaft 9 through the medium of the gears 7 and 8 so that the sign displaying mechanism in the casing. 41 is actuated so that the carrier will be moved to display the name of the next succeeding station. The cam 25 will then have moved sufliciently to engage the abutment member 27 thereby forcing thebar '26 downwardly to actuate the bell crank lever 31 whereupon apull is exerted on the rod 32 for disengaging the end of the rod from the notch 36 thereby permitting the spring to force the trip rod 11 downwardly whereupon the parts assume their normalposition, the friction disks being out ofengagement and ready for the actuation which will occur at the next station. This operation is repeated as the car travels from one station to another so that the names of the stations will be] displayed in their proper order. Now, when the car reaches the end of the route it will be obvious that-the names must appear in the'reverse order and since the axle will rotate in the opposite direction, the

movement imparted to the shaft will also be opposite The actuation of the device is thereby the same except for the action of the cam member 25 on the abutment member 28. Since the shaft 23 will be rotated in the opposite direction it will be obvious that this cam will actuate the bar 26 while the cam member 25 will engage the lower face of the abutment member 27 causing it to swing on its hinge whereby the cam 25 may pass without injuring the mechanism. It will be obvious that this arrangement permits the change to be entirely automatic and, if for any reason it is found necessary to move the car backwardly and forwardly at any point along the route, the action of the mechanism will maintain the station indicating means in the proper order and the car may move backwardly and forwardly between stations without requiring any alteration in the mechanism and the order of appearance of the names will be thereby always corrected.

When the mechanism is employed on a car traveling over a belt line or one having a loop at its terminal, it will be obvious that the change cannot be accomplished by the reverse movement of the car consequently I have provided the member 50 which may be pulled by the conductor or operator of the car to change the gears 46 and 47 for engaging or disengaging the gear 15 thereby changing the direction of rotation of the shaft 43 for reversing the movement of the flexible carrier on which the station names are printed.

The foregoing description and accompanying drawings have reference to what might be considered to be the preferred or approved form of my invention. I desire it to be understood that I may make such changes in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts, material, dimensions, et cetera, as may prove expedient and fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A station indicator for cars including a sign exhibitor operable from the car axle, means for clutching up the exhibitor with the car axle including a trip device engaging station stops, a locking rod for holding the trip inoperative, a member having hingedly mounted abutment portions connected to said rod and oppositely projecting cams arranged to alternately operate upon said member for releasing said rod.

2. An actuating mechanism for an indicator including a fixed drive shaft, an indicator shaft, a geared, movable clutch shaft extended for movement between the said drive and indicator shafts, a trip device, a bell crank connection between the trip and the clutch shaft for moving the shaft to establish a gear connection upon tripping of the trip device between the said drive shafts and the said indicator shaft, and plunger means for automatically gripping the trip device to hold it in tripped position and cam actuated abutment means on said plunger whereby it may be automatically released from engagement with device.

3. An actuating mechanism for an indicator, including in combination, an inclicator shaft, a fixed drive shaft, a movable clutch shaft supported for movement between the said indicator and shaft, with one end geared to the former shaft and the other adapted to be in gear at intervals with the latter shaft, means for bringing said clutch shaft in gear with the drive shaft, said means consisting of a trip device engaging station stops, a trip lock normally operating to hold the trip device inoperative, and an alternating cam mechanism in gear with said clutch shaft for automatically releasing the said trip device upon rotation of the clutch shaft.

L. A station indicator for cars including a sign exhibitor operable from the car axle, means for clutching up the exhibitor with the car axle, and including a trip rod engaging station stops, a brake for said clutch means actuated by said trip rod, said trip rod adapted when moved to alternately operate the clutch means and the brake whereby the latter is applied to the clutch only when the same is disengaged from the car axle.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

LYLE E. WILCOX.

the trip lVitnesses:

Lnsrnn H. MARTIN, MARY BENNINGTON. 

